1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of hand-held labelers.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
The following U.S. patents are made of record: U.S. Pat. No. 1,036,200 to Elliot; U.S. Pat. No. 3,890,188 to Sams; U.S. Pat. No. 3,968,745 to Hamisch, Jr.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,104,106 to Hamisch, Jr.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,119,033 to Sato; U.S. Pat. No. 4,125,421 to Hamisch, Jr.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,142,932 to Hamisch, Jr.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,148,679 to Hamisch, Jr.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,227,457 to Hamisch, Jr.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,252,060 to Strausburg; U.S. Pat. No. 4,257,326 to Sato; U.S. Pat. No. 4,280,863 to Hamisch, Jr. et al; U.S. Pat. No. 4,261,783 to Finke; U.S. Pat. No. 4,280,863 to Hamisch, Jr. et al; U.S. Pat. No. 4,350,554 to Pabodie; U.S. Pat. No. 4,352,710 to Makley; U.S. Pat. No. 4,440,592 to Sato; U.S. Pat. No. 4,441,425 to Huggins; U.S. Pat. No. 4,668,326 to Mistyurik; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,486,259 to Goodwin et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,906,161 to Kessler; and Japanese publication 60-18933.
This invention relates to an improved, easy to load, simple, low cost, easy to manufacture, user-friendly, durable hand-held labeler for printing and applying pressure sensitive labels.
According to a specific embodiment of the invention, there is provided a hand-held labeler with a housing having an upper housing portion or section and a lower housing portion or section. The upper housing section is movable relative to the lower housing section to allow access to the inside of the housing for loading of labels, for cleaning and for removing stray labels and jams. The upper housing section mounts a print head for reciprocating straight line movement. The lower housing section has a handle and mounts a manually engageable actuator, a toothed driver, gears and a pawl and ratchet mechanism. The actuator, one of the gears and the pawl and ratchet mechanism are operable to advance the driver. There are racks on the print head with mesh with the gears when the upper housing section is in the closed or operating position. However, when the upper housing section is in the open position the racks are out of mesh with the gears. The lower housing section mounts a label roll about an axis and the upper housing section can rotate to its open position about the axis. When the print head is driven into its printing position in cooperation with the print head, an inker arm is cammed so that the ink roller which it carries inks the print head. The upper housing section is releasably latched to the lower housing section. There is an interlock between the print head and the latch to prevent the latch from becoming unlatched unless the print head is essentially in its initial position. The interlock also helps keep the print head from moving out of its initial position when the latch is unlatched. The latch also cooperates with the print head to help guide the print head during movement. There is a movable member in the housing which provides a brake surface, guides the carrier web, mounts a die roll, which partially surrounds the toothed driver, and which has a finger-engageable recess. Another member mounts a brake roll and a direction changing roll. An assembly including the platen and the delaminator is positionable selectively relative to an applicator so that the printer with a minimum of structural change, such as repositioning the applicator, can dispense labels of different lengths into underlying relation to an applicator.
It is a feature of the invention to provide a spring which will return the print head to its initial position even though the upper housing section is in an open position, and yet when the upper housing portion is moved to a closed position with respect to the lower housing portion registration between the component parts continues to exist.
It is a further feature of the invention to provide an improved inker which is simple, easy to manufacture, and wherein an ink roller may be easily inserted and removed without ink from the ink roller being transferred to the user""s hands. In particular, the inker includes a carrier having relatively movable holders which cooperate to readily receive an ink roller and from which the ink roller can be readily removed by moving the holders relative to each other.
It is another feature of the invention to provide an improved ink roller which is compatible with at least two types of carriers, and wherein the ink roller is easy to insert and remove from both types of carriers.
It is another feature of the invention to provide an improved impression control mechanism which is effective to promote quality printing, which has few parts, and which is easy to assemble. In particular, a pawl is movable together with the print head as the print head is driven toward the platen in response to operation of an actuator. When the print head and pawl have moved to a position at which the pawl contacts an abutment, movement of the print head is arrested but one or more springs are progressively loaded. Upon a predetermined further amount of movement of the actuator which results in a predetermined loading of the spring or springs, the pawl is tripped by a trip surface, whereupon the spring or springs move the print head into cooperation with the platen at a predetermined rate.
It is yet another feature of the invention to provide an improved latch for latching sections of the housing to each other. The latch is preferably of one-piece molded plastics construction. The latch also forms part of the inker in that the latch has an integral leaf spring which moves the ink roll carrier into inking cooperation with the print head.